TORONTO (Oct. 24) — I don’t know if the Blue Jays are sound enough to overcome the defending–champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, which begins tonight here in town. Part of me says the Dodgers are too deep and experienced to lose four of seven games to the American League upstarts. While another believes this is simply the Blue Jays’ year, for no Toronto team in my life has moved forward so rapidly and unexpectedly.

Remember, this was a club that could not buy a run early in the Major League schedule. When the Blue Jays fumbled and stammered to a lost weekend in Tampa (May 23–25), being outscored 19–2 by the Rays and falling to 25–27 on the season, no person in or outside the organization could have predicted such a turnaround.

Never in my years watching and covering sport in Toronto has a team risen from apparent death in the same season to play for the championship of its league. The closest example I can call upon is the 1992–93 Maple Leafs: a mediocre 13–16–5 after 34 games. Only to completely reverse course in the new year… then rocket toward the top of the old Norris Division after general manager Cliff Fletcher acquired winger Dave Andreychuk from Buffalo (on Feb. 2, 1993). Andreychuk and Doug Gilmour formed a lethal combination; each playing the best hockey of his Hall–of–Fame career after the trade (which sent veteran goalie Grant Fuhr to the Sabres and allowed young Felix Potvin to grab the No. 1 mantle). Between Feb. 11 and Apr. 3, 1993, the Leafs were the best team in the National Hockey League with an 18–3–3 record over 24 starts. Gilmour obliterated club records with 95 assists and 127 points. Andreychuk erupted for 25 goals in 31 games alongside Gilmour, who told the crowd at Maple Leaf Gardens after the regular–season finale that “we’re gonna do something for you here in these playoffs.”

Neither was the Killer bluffing.

In 21 games over 42 nights, Gilmour carried the Leafs on his shoulder, establishing a franchise playoff record of 35 points. Toronto went seven games with Detroit and St. Louis before prevailing, then hooked up with Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup semifinals. Had the Leafs triumphed in Game 7 of that penultimate series on home ice, they would be the equal, today, of the 2025 Blue Jays. Instead, Gretzky scored three goals in a grandiose playoff performance and the Leafs were edged in the final moments, 5–4. Rather than a series–altering home run by George Springer in the eighth inning, we had late goals by Pat Conacher and Gretzky that abruptly ended the 1993 Stanley Cup dream. This year, the Blue Jays made it; that year, the Leafs fell just shy. No Maple Leaf team since 1967 has ventured so close to playing for the silver mug.

WITH HIS THREE–RUN HOMER IN THE EIGHTH INNING OF THE ALCS GAME 7 AGAINST SEATTLE, GEORGE SPRINGER AUTHORED THE GREATEST TORONTO SPORTS MOMENT SINCE THE RAPTORS WON THE 2019 NBA TITLE.

Some may point to the 1967 Stanley Cup triumph as a similar upset, as the Leafs were not expected to defeat either Chicago (in the semifinals) or Montreal. But, winning the NHL championship was hardly novel for Punch Imlach’s veteran crew, which had prevailed in three consecutive springs (1962–63–64) prior to the 1967 surprise. So, to suggest the Leafs came out of absolute nowhere — ala the current Blue Jays — would be inaccurate.

The 2015 Blue Jays were following a path similar to the 2025 edition. Trade–deadline acquisitions of starter David Price, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and left–fielder Ben Revere lit a spark under the middling club: 50–51 on July 28. From July 29 to Sep. 30, the Blue Jays roared to a 42–14 mark to breeze past the Yankees for the American League East title. After a never–to–be–repeated Game 5 of the Division series against Texas, which dramatically turned on Jose Bautista’s “bat–flip” home run in the surreal seventh inning, the Blue Jays went down rather meekly to Kansas City in the ALCS. Falling well shy of the current club. Same, but with more difficulty, in 2016, when Edwin Encarnacion smacked a walk–off homer at Rogers Centre in the wild card game against Baltimore.

The Blue Jays swept Texas in the Division series, which ended on the iconic “Donaldson dash” (home, from second base) at the Dome, but were then fodder for Cleveland in a quick American League Championship Series.

The consecutive World Series teams of 1992 and 1993 were not comparable to the current Blue Jays. Any baseball observer old enough to remember will tell you those triumphs occurred after years of teasing a tortured fan base. Toronto made the playoffs and lost in the ALCS to Kansas City (1985), Oakland (1989) and Minnesota (1991) before finally prevailing against Oakland and Atlanta in ’92. Included was the most gut–churning collapse in modern Toronto sport — the 1987 Blue Jays dropping their final seven games of the season to blow a 3½–game lead over Detroit. So, the ’92 and ’93 conquests ended a laborious process that spanned eight seasons.

Did the Raptors come from nowhere to win the 2019 National Basketball Association title? Not after the off–season trade with San Antonio that landed mega–star Kawhi Leonard. That 2018–19 club finished 58–24 to win the Atlantic Division by seven games over Philadelphia and fell just two games shy of the Knicks atop the Eastern Conference. The “George Springer” moment occurred at the buzzer of Game 7 in the Conference semi against the 76ers when Leonard famously rimmed a series–winning shot at Scotiabank Arena. Six–game triumphs over Milwaukee and Golden State cemented the first title by an NBA team outside the U.S. But, it was hardly a shock.

So, it’s true: the 2025 Blue Jays are the most–unique club in the modern history of Toronto professional sport.

Still to be determined: Can they finish the job?

THOSE COVETED PROGRAMS FROM 1992

They still rest, securely and safely, in a rectangular box atop my office desk (above). Programs and score cards from the 1992 Major League Baseball playoffs. Twelve games I will forever take with me from the American League Championship Series (Toronto vs. Oakland) and the World Series (Toronto vs. Atlanta). Covering all games, home and away, for the all–sports radio station that launched here on Sep. 4 of that year — initially, The FAN–1430, to become The FAN–590 in February 1995. Telemedia (of Montreal), which owned the radio station prior to Rogers, put me up in a wonderful, boutique hotel in San Francisco near the entrance to the Bay bridge.

A quick ride on the underground BART took me to the “Coliseum” exit in Oakland for three games of the ALCS.

In Atlanta, it was the symbol of downtown — the tall, circular Westin Peachtree Plaza, a 73–story structure that opened in February 1976. Among the greatest moments of my career in media originated from the visitors’ broadcast booth at the old Atlanta Fulton–County Stadium. Standing directly behind Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth as they described the Otis Nixon bunt to pitcher Mike Timlin that sealed the deal in Game 6 and crowned a World Series champion from outside the United States for the first time. It happened for a second time (against the Philadelphia Phillies) the next year: Joe Carter’s legendary, walk–off home run at SkyDome in Game 6 of the 1993 Series. Now, here we are, more than a generation later. Will Canada’s team pull an upset and knock off the defending–champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2025 World Series? We’ll begin to find out tonight, at the Dome.

THREE COPIES (ABOVE AND BELOW) OF THE 1992 AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES PROGRAM, SOLD AT SKYDOME FOR GAMES 1, 2 AND 6. STILL IN PERFECT, MINT CONDITION.

TWO COPIES OF THE ALCS SCORECARD SOLD AT THE OAKLAND COLISEUM FOR GAMES 3, 4 AND 5.

TWO MINT PROGRAMS (ABOVE) FROM THE 1992 WORLD SERIES — TORONTO vs. ATLANTA.

COMMEMORATIVE PROGRAMS (ABOVE AND BELOW) SOLD JUST AFTER THE 1992 WORLD SERIES.

EMAIL: HOWARDLBERGER@GMAIL.COM